EARLY CHILDHOOD: PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT Flashcards
Importance of Psychological development
Emotional development of self-regulation skills highly important in early childhood, especially in preparation for school
Developments in emotional self-regulation and understanding during the preschool period
2 to 3 years
Sympathy is displayed towards others in distress; child discusses emotions and their causes, and self-evaluative emotions (shame, guilt, pride) appear.
Developments in emotional self-regulation and understanding during the preschool period
3 to 6 years
Child understands the likely causes and consequences of many basic emotions; controls feelings for social reasons and is aware of basic emotional display rules (e.g. not rejoicing when an opponent loses).
Social Cognition
- Social cognition – individual’s understanding of human behaviour, human psychology and other elements of social life
Theory of mind
- Theory of mind – understanding of people’s mental states and the influences of thoughts, feelings and intentions on behaviour
Social cognition and theory of mind
- Children come to understand their own and others’ minds by formulating an implicit ‘theory’ of the mind
- The ability to employ this understanding to anticipate the behaviour of others
- The ability to attribute beliefs and desires to oneself and others and to understand that others have desires and beliefs that are different from one’s own
False Belief Tasks
- Deceptive box test (e.g. smarties task)
- Unexpected transfer test (e.g. Salley-Anne task)
- Between the age of 3-4 children start to understand that another person can have a false belief and can thus anticipate their behaviour
- By age 5-6 most children readily
Defining play
- Intrinsically motivated
- Process-oriented
- Creative and non-literal
- Governed by implicit rules
- Spontaneous and self-initiated
- Free from major emotional distress
Parten’s categories of play: Unoccupied play
The child wanders about, watching whatever is of momentary interest, but does not come involved in any activity.
Parten’s categories of play: Solitary Play
The child plays alone with different toys with no direct or indirect awareness of or involvement with other children, even if nearby.
Parten’s categories of play: Onlooker play
The child watches others play without actually entering into the activities; is clearly involved with what is happening and is usually within speaking distance of the participants.
Parten’s categories of play: Parallel play
Involves two or more children playing side by side in close proximity and with an awareness of each other’s presence often with the same toy or enjoying a similar activity; but do not talk or interact except in very minimal ways.
Parten’s categories of play: Associative play
Children engage in common activity and talk about it with each other, but do not assign tasks or roles to particular individuals and are not very clear about their goals.
Parten’s categories of play: Cooperative play
Children consciously form into groups to make something, attain a goal, or dramatise a situation; one or two children organise and direct the activity, with other children assuming different roles and responsibilities.
GRUSEC AND LYTTON’S TYPOLOGY: Functional play
Simple, repetitive movements, sometimes with objects or own body. For example, shovelling sand, pushing a toy, jumping up and down
GRUSEC AND LYTTON’S TYPOLOGY: Constructive Play
Manipulation of objects in order to construct something. For example, building with blocks
GRUSEC AND LYTTON’S TYPOLOGY: Pretend Play
Substitutes make-believe, imaginary and dramatic situations for real ones. For example, playing ‘house’ or ‘Superheroes’
GRUSEC AND LYTTON’S TYPOLOGY: Games with rules
Play is more formal and is governed with fixed rules. For example, hopscotch or hide-and-seek
Pretend Play
o Cognition, conservation
o Creativity and cognitive flexibility
o Theory of mind
o Emotional understanding and self-regulation skills
o Learning of social roles (including gender roles)
Physical Play (rough and tumble play)
o Practicing physical and motor skills
o Social dominance hierarchies
To develop fine and gross motor coordination
- Ride-on toys that are stable, e.g. tricycles or push-along toys
- Swing sets or trampolines with safety borders and soft-surrounds
- Large outdoor building blocks for making forts, castles.
- Water table and sandpit for sand and water play
- Finger painting materials and play dough
To release emotions and express feelings
- Act out feelings by role playing with puppets or stuffed toys
- Give children a safe space to run wild. Jumping, rolling and laughing help release emotions
- Encourage children to express their feelings through painting and drawing
To enhance imagination and creativity
- Read books and make up stories
- Play dress-ups with a box of old clothes and props, including crazy hats
- Play with miniature animals or fantasy figures
- Try something children have never done before, like a bushwalk or museum visit
To encourage language, thinking and memory
- Play simple board games based on chance, such as snakes and ladders
- Ask riddles and make up word games such as rhyming games
- Play simple memory card games
To help with reading and identifying numbers
- Read a picture book out loud and point out the pictures
- Cook simple recipes together. Talk about the quantities and the order of doing things
- Set up a ‘shop’ and let children ‘buy’ items
Multiple social worlds of childhood
- Adult-child and child-child relationships are qualitatively different and contribute differently to development
- Parent/caregiver – child relationship
o Attachment
o Internal working models - Sibling relationships
o A unique mix of family and peer interaction - Peer relationships
o Interaction among social equals
Pressures of parenthood
- Warm, respectful, empathic and mutually responsive parent-child relationships optimal for psychosocial development
- Pre-schoolers’ preference for greater autonomy and control of their environment poses many challenges
- Parenting practices shaped and challenged by cultural and societal demands/practices
Parenting Styles: Authoritative
Parent and Child Behaviour
Parent:
Make reasonable, age-appropriate demands; promotes self-regulation; warm; receptive; rational; verbal give-and-take;
value discipline, self-reliance and uniqueness
Child:
Independent; socially responsible; self-controlled; explorative; self-reliant
Parenting Styles: Authoritarian
Parent and Child Behaviour
Parent:
Exert strict control; critical evaluation of child’s behaviour and attitudes; little verbal give-and-take; cold; emotionally rejecting; does not promote autonomy
Child:
Withdrawn; discontented; distrustful of others
Parenting Styles: Permissive
Parent and Child Behaviour
Parent:
Non-controlling; non-demanding; little punishment or exercising of power; use of reasoning; warm and accepting
Child:
Lacking in self-reliance and self-control
Parenting Styles: Uninvolved
Parent and Child Behaviour
Parent:
Emotionally cold; indifferent; non-controlling; parent-centred rather than child-centred
Child:
Disruptions of attachment and peer relationships; behavioural problems
Variations in parenting styles
- Parents not necessarily consistent in ‘types’
- Parenting style varies according to
o Cultural background
o Specific circumstances
o Duration of parenting and birth order
o Number of children
o Changes and stresses in family
o Temperament of child - Parenting styles are better thought of a dimensions (a spectrum) rather than categories
- Inconsistencies between parents can lead to confusion or ‘playing one against the other’
Relationship with siblings
- Most family systems include more than on child, so most children experience some form of sibling relationship
- Sibling relationships typically involve both closeness and conflict
o Sibling rivalry and differential parenting - Influence on development can be:
o Positive and negative
o Direct and indirect
Direct Peer influences: Positive
- Cognitive development (sibling tutoring effect)
o Language
o Problem solving - Social skills and competencies
o Social cognition and theory of mind
o Practising social roles
o Partners in conflict resolution and negotiation - Siblings as socialising agents and ‘cultural educators’
- Buffer against family turmoil
Direct peer influences: Negative
- Antisocial behaviour
- Risky and deviant behaviour
- Sibling similarities through social learning
- (older) siblings are effective models
o powerful or high in status
o warm and nurturing
o similar to the observer - they also provide:
o materials and settings for shared (deviant activities)
o network of potential friends
Indirect peer influences
- every child has a relationship with their parents that in turn influences the relationship the parents have with other children
o parents’ experiences with older children
o parents’ parenting strategies and skills
o differential parenting
o family resources
Relationships with peers
- peer – a social equal, often of similar age, who functions at a level of behavioural complexity similar to that of the self
- importance
o equal-status interactions
o mixed-age interactions - in early childhood children spend increasing amount of time with typically same-sex peers of roughly similar age engaging in gender-typed activities
Do peers matter in early childhood?
- Assumption that young children could not experience ‘friendship’ because of limited cognitive development
- Now understood that in early childhood:
o Certain children prefer one another as playmates
o Friends show higher levels of cooperation and concern for one another than for non-friends
o Friends experience just as much conflict as non-friends, but have a stronger will and better skills for solving or overcoming conflict
o Friends miss one another when the other is missing and show/experience grief when friends move away
o Yet friendship is still largely based on shared play and physical proximity - Importance of imaginary friends in early childhood
